14 minute read
AA LEGION: TAIWAN
BACK IN THE GROOVE!
AS ALWAYS STEWBACCA IS A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT IN TERMS OF AIRSOFT-RELATED ENDURANCE, SO AS SOON AS HE RETURNED TO TAIWAN FROM JAPAN AND THE KRYTAC OWNER’S MEETING HE WENT OUT SKIRMISHING THAT WEEKEND, AND THEN RETURNED TO THE COMPETITION CIRCUIT THE WEEKEND AFTER, FOR THE FINAL OF THREE HEATS IN THE SANCHONG SHOOTING CENTRE SHOOTER’S CUP, SPPT’S HOME STOMPING GROUND AND HOST TO MOST COMPETITIONS HE’S BEEN INVOLVED IN!
As 2022 draws to a close and with my escapades in Japan having been concluded, MOA on the horizon (it will have already happened by the time you read this!), and further pistol and rifle Level 3 competition in Kaohsiung and then the IDPA nationals to cover on Christmas Day once again… the magic never ends towards the end of this year! To be fair I’m not a particular fan of Xmas so I’d rather be doing shooting-related anyway. Having lost out on attending second Action Air competition heat around July earlier this year due to the ankle embuggerance I suffered up in the hills of Xindian in the south of Taipei (while putting together my LCT LK53 EBB AEG review!) my hopes of running around merrily on shooting stages were dashed!
I was therefore glad to be back to competing, and also finally had my KJ Works CZ75 Shadow 2 back to excellent working order thanks to the support of Clarence Lai and all his upgrade components (as covered in September issue No. 141). Having had a little time to practise with it and zero in the sights, my marksmanship scores were at least redeemed somewhat.
So, backpack in tow I arrived early doors on Sunday the 20th of November at the Shooting Centre not far from my place and my favourite gun shop, and began preparing my equipment and registering for the ensuing Level 1 third heat; another five stages of mischief split over the course of two short stages in the morning, a medium length stage before lunch, and a further medium then long stage to finish off after returning from lunch.
This time the number of competitors in total was 26 according to the books, with 11 shooters competing for production division, 6 in standard, and 9 in open; evidently the weighting is leaning towards duty guns without all the bells and whistles more recently, which increased the competition stacked against me (lots of familiar faces as always, and a few new ones!) all of them excellent company and fine shooters. The banter and jovial but supportive atmosphere was in usual full-swing after we all arrived and reconnected, some of us having not seen each other since the start of the year in some cases.
STAGE 1: PLEASE TO BE SEATED!
The first stage was a simple short affair of 4 papers, 3 poppers, 1 no shoot and the ending plate, 11+1 rounds and 55 possible points; the shooter had to deposit all their magazines on the desk in front of
them and then their pistol in Condition 3, then take a seat and prepare to shoot the whole stage from that position.
With the dreaded vertical railings obstruction between the shooter and the rest of the stage, as well as obstructions to the flanks that forced you to shift position left and right to reach the symmetrical low obscured popper, high paper target and twin targets at the front with a no shoot sandwiched between them and a single popper in front of them with the stop plate behind and above them… as always, it sounds simple enough… unfortunately I managed to have a horrible stoppage on my run after the first couple of BBs and had a double feed that I tried to remedy and induced a triple feed, which I then dumped out the ejection port, before carrying on and then needing to reload with having lost so many BBs in the stoppage.
In retrospect I should have dropped the mag and reloaded immediately and ditched the loose BBs and solved the situation, but, fluster@^# and whatnot. Not a great start, 18.99 seconds, 8 alphas, 2 charlies and a miss on the rear right paper after the malfunction… that put me dead last of the pack for that stage.
STAGE 5: PICK A LANE!
STAGE 2: TIP OF THE SPEAR
This was another short and fairly simple symmetrical stage; the shooter starting at the tip of an arrowhead shape with the legs extending forward to the left and right, with obstructions along both legs forcing you to run far left and right in turn to access the target arrays on both sides, consisting of a popper, low paper and then high paper across the diagonal on each side, and a lone popper in the centre flanked by the stop plate at the far centre rear. 4 papers, 3 poppers, 1 ending - again, 11+1 shots, 55 points, with a condition 2 start.
This I fared much better in, slap bang in the middle of the pack, with 49 points - 12.48 seconds, 8 alphas and 3 charlies. I was much happier with that at least, although perhaps I need to be moving faster and transitioning targets more rapidly; I guess I’m pretty rusty this year due to work and other commitments getting in the way of Tuesday drill sessions.
This was actually shot third… I know… Just prior to lunch we broke down the first and second adjacent stages and quickly assembled the third stage to be shot before we headed off for fodder fun-times! Stage number 5 was a shooting gallery style affair with three separate lanes divided by obstruction walls along their lengths with tables in each on which to deposit your magazines. The shooter had to move between each lane and engage the targets with a forced reload between each one, with a penalty awarded per each shot for those who failed to do so. The majority of shooters did a basic left to right shuffle, with the left lane comprising a high right paper close in, high centre paper at the rear and twin poppers at its base, the centre lane having twin poppers in the centre flanked by a lateral wall hiding a noshoot obstructed paper behind and above, flanked by two open papers (one each side), and the stop plate above and slightly to the right. This was visible from the right bay at least, and the right bay being the mirror of the left with a high close left paper, far centre high paper and twin poppers at its base. 7 papers, 6 poppers, 1 no
shoot and the ending plate, 100 points available and a Condition 3 start. 19.69 seconds, 14 alphas and 6 charlies; I was pretty happy with that, and it put me dead centre of the pack again with 88 points -my accuracy managed to put me ahead of the next competitor who was faster but sloppier, at least.
PASTA LA VISTA BABY
Lunchtime arrived and we escaped a little early once the SPPT squad had finished shooting prior to the other remaining shooters finishing, giving us a little more time for a leisurely lunch. We ventured across the road to the local pasta place and had a decent chow-down before retiring to the upper floor of the 7-11 nearby to engulf some ice creams; yes, it is still in the mid to high twenties in Taiwan, despite allegedly being heading into winter, and it’s always hot work running around in the relatively small space with a lot of shooters in it too.
Nevertheless, as half one rolled around we found our way back to the centre and re-donned our gun belts and reloaded our magazines ready for the afternoon’s stages.
STAGE 4: RABBIT WARREN
The fourth stage was a little more involved; 13 paper targets (two of which were obstructed behind cover and on swinging arms tripped by poppers), 6 poppers in total, 2 no shoots and the ending plate…32+1 shots, condition 1 start, 160 points total.
A few different approaches were taken by shooters as the layout was two bays to the left, one behind the other, the front one having a high right paper, lone central popper and a further popper to the left tripping and exposing a swinging paper… with a side-wall opening further along to allow access into the rear left bay, which had a similar arrangement to the bay in front but the high target was obstructed behind prison bars, with a corridor next to these that you started halfway down with a large front central bay split into two rear angled smaller bays accessible from the left and right openings with two high papers each, and a front section that required left-centreright stances to access the angled no shoot obstructed papers within its corners and lone central popper!
With a further corridor to the right, both corridors opened out into the space leading to the far rear bay that also had obstructions forcing the shooter to use at least two different positions to reach the targets presented; a lone central popper, a high paper left and right, and a low paper behind the barricade flanking the popper and the stop plate being to its right and visible from the front central bay too.
I worked left to right, shooting the first two targets in the angled central rear bay to the right of my starting point, then retreating to take on the front left bay, before moving right to do the centre front, swinging round the right corridor and shooting the two papers in the right rear of the front bay, and moving across its rear to the rear left bay, then heading along the front of the back bay engaging the targets there and finishing after 26.72 seconds, with 26 alphas and 6 charlies; 148 points, pretty happy with that all told, especially given some of the target distances and presentations, and once again dead middle of the pack in 6th place.
STAGE 3: TO THE WINDOW, TO THE WALL
And yes, Stage 3 was shot…shot fifth… This was the finale and the longest and most awkward stage for
me, 10 papers, 2 steels, 2 no shoots, and the ending plate; 110 points and a Condition 1 start, all of which was hidden along the length of the most of the room with us moving left and right along its long axis as opposed to all the other stages.
There was also a near-full-width barricade concealing the entire stage from the fault line area except for an opening at each end and a few windows along the middle, one of which was covered by twin doors that needed punching open!
Starting at the middle of the barricades with a window either side of you and the door closed on to your upper right at a slight angle, there was a low paper visible through the left window, and a low no shoot obstructed paper visible through the one around to the right of you, as well as further paper
targets and a popper at the rear wall visible through the window behind the doors, and two papers visible at the two open ends of the barricade. This also allowed access to the ending plate at the rear.
And then there was the far right hidden paper only visible from the far left window, which of course I forgot to engage after noticing it in my stage plan. A costly 2 misses, once again scuppering myself on the final stage like previous such endeavours in earlier competitions. 23.12 seconds, 17 alphas, 3 charlies… and those 2 misses… it was all going so well, until it wasn’t!
I take solace in the fact I still managed to finish 8th with 74 points thanks to being faster than the following shooters, so I guess my marksmanship capabilities are strong, it’s the stage planning and not forgetting those damned well-hidden targets that needs work. No deltas, no no-shoots all day, just alphas and charlies, and 3 misses and a stoppage. I can’t really complain all that much given that I haven’t had as much chance to train, have only recently regained my primary race gun, and have barely used my TMC STAGE electronic training targets since my
earlier review of them in Issue No. 131 Nov 2021! At least when I remember to shoot the targets I’m drilling the centre zones even at reasonable distances, I just need to get running and target transitioning faster but maintain that accuracy! With all the competitors finished and the final stage broken down we chilled out as the results were “STARTING AT THE MIDDLE OF THE BARRICADES WITH A WINDOW EITHER SIDE OF YOU AND THE DOOR CLOSED ON TO YOUR UPPER RIGHT AT A SLIGHT ANGLE, THERE WAS A LOW PAPER VISIBLE THROUGH THE LEFT WINDOW, AND A LOW NO SHOOT OBSTRUCTED PAPER VISIBLE THROUGH THE ONE AROUND TO THE RIGHT OF YOU, AS WELL AS FURTHER PAPER TARGETS AND A POPPER AT THE REAR WALL VISIBLE THROUGH THE WINDOW BEHIND THE DOORS”
tabulated; in the end I took 8th place out of 11 overall in Production division, not a complete loss given the horrendous stoppage and missed target of the first and last stages dragging my scores down significantly.
For the most part I was middle of the pack throughout, Team Spring Rain’s Zheng JiaHua took first place, with Liu SiXi taking second and Team Yamars’ Zhou TingYu taking third place.
Standard division saw Tema Yamars’ Cai YuQi taking first place, Team Spring Rain’s leader Zhan DengXiong taking second, and our own SPPT’s latest addition Ou JiaCheng ‘TacticalCat’ storming into third place, hot on the heels of qualifying in TPSA Action Air, and not long after qualifying expert in carry optics in the USA using real steel pistols for the first time under the tutelage of Frank ‘the tank’ Xu, a US based Taiwanese real steel master; excellent work!
Finally the open division was once again taken by team Yamar’s Hou BoXian in first, Shi JiaHao taking second place, and Liu JiaYu taking third place. With all that dealt with we took the obligatory team and RO photos, said our goodbyes and dissolved into the now darkened skies outside after a full day of shooting fun.
Many thanks as always to Chris and James of the Shooting Centre for organising the day, as well as the TPSA RO staff for running the stages. AA
